


The Survival Guide to Being a Backstreet Boy

by KimboKah



Category: Backstreet Boys
Genre: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Gen, Reality TV, Survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-04
Updated: 2017-11-09
Packaged: 2018-09-28 06:55:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10078493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KimboKah/pseuds/KimboKah
Summary: It had seemed a fantastic adventure and great pr for the Backstreet Boys to join a survival reality program. But something on the island isn't playing by the rules, which becomes evident when mysterious things start happening around the camp site and the boys start to wonder if they're still a part of the program or not.





	1. Chapter 1

“Fuck it all to hell,” AJ cursed vividly, knowing full well that his obscene use of the English language was going to be quite a full day’s job for the intern that was undoubtedly left in charge of censoring the episodes. But, as he stepped into another pool of what he suspected was a part of the slimy, reeking swamp around him, he couldnt care less about the intern sitting at his desk in his clean, warm building and comfortable office chair.

His knees were hurting, an old familiar ache and one of the only reasons of doubt he’d had in participating with the program in the first place. But alas, Nick’s enthusiasm and the dream of adventure had lured him into the lion’s den and AJ wasn’t quite sure how he thought about it now. He was cold, yet sweat seemed to pour from places he didn’t think possible and by God, was he hungry. He tried to keep his focus on Nick’s swaying back in front of him as they trudged through the forest, back to presumably and hopefully the base camp. Nick, even on day six, seemed as cheerful as ever, whistling an upbeat tune as he hacked and slashed at the long branches with the long knife and so creating a narrow pathway for the two of them.

“My feet are drowning,” AJ grumbled dejectedly. He’d been instructed at the start of the program to make sure to say every thought out loud, which he had no problem with, because he’d done it since birth.

“I’m pretty sure we’re almost back,” Nick said carelessly.

“What if it starts to rain again?” AJ whined, trying to hoist the backpack a bit higher.

“Here,” Nick reached back without looking and handed AJ the compass.

“It doesn’t say how far it is, Nick,” AJ grumbled, rolling his eyes.

“Nope, but I can see the camp fire,” Nick looked back at him, grinning.

A wave of relief flooded AJ’s senses as he now too could see the smoke trickling above the clouds about a mile away. “Thank fuck.”

                Exhausted, AJ let himself fall into the sand about twenty minutes later. The smell of the ocean was a welcome change to the suffocating scent of the swamp and he carefully massaged his legs as he stared at the water. Six days, and he’d already lost about ten pounds, he was sure. The expedition with Nick had not been useless though, they’d found a wide variety of fruits, and Nick, being Nick, had insisted on climbing a tree to get a cluster of about twenty bananas, which he singlehandedly had carried back to base camp. They had arrived as heroes, for the food supply had been unsteady so far and AJ had smiled tiredly before collapsing into the sand and insisting on doing nothing the remainder of the evening.

                He couldn’t help but smile as he watched Howie stand in the water, in vain attempting to catch a fish. Howie had never caught a fish in his entire life, and had remained unable to do so since day one, so AJ was now kind of wondering why they left Howard in charge of the fish catching business. Maybe it was because Brian and Kevin had given up after five minutes and had unceremoniously declared they’d be in charge of the fire and the camp instead. Once again, Howie was left to pick up the slack and do the jobs nobody else wanted to do.  

Leaning back, AJ wondered how the other camp, on the other side of the island was faring. He hadn’t seen much of the other five random people apart from the obligatory challenges that happened every two days. The others seemed strong and fit, and far more knowledgeable about the wilderness than a pampered boyband did, but AJ had figured that the others had one disadvantage.

They didn’t know each other. Which was evident in the way their team was struggling with the cooperative parts of the challenges. A thing the five singers didn’t have any trouble with whatsoever. It was all the rest that the Backstreet Boys seemed to have trouble with.


	2. C is for Cooperation

1978

He ran through the woods with Harold hot on his heels They screamed loudly and bounded between the trees without a care in the world. Harold was chasing him, getting closer every second, which he found astonishing given that the other boy was about a head shorter than him, even though they were roughly the same age. His cousin wasn’t often pleased with the never-ending taunts about his height and he made sure to make up for what he lacked in stature, with what he had in agility.

Kevin took a quick left turn and hid behind one of the many thick and old trees these woods had to offer. Biting his lip, he watched Harold skid to a stop, confused as he looked around to see where he had gone. Kevin smiled broadly, grabbing one of the low-hanging arms of the tree and hoisting himself up without much trouble He expertly placed his foot on the branch and climbed higher and higher, until eventually, he was looking down on the top of Harold’s head.

“Hey butthead!” he yelled and Harold whirled around, looking up to face his cousin.

“That’s cheating!” he screamed at him, running to the tree and embracing the bark demonstratively.

“Nuh-uh,” Kevin said, sticking out his tongue as he sat down about nine foot above the other boy, letting his legs dangle in the air.

“I am so telling grandpa that you climbed a tree,” Harold scoffed, leaning against the tree now with his back and looking up at Kevin.

“Then I’mma tell himd that you ditched your little brother to play with me,” Kevin shrugged and grinned down on him evilly.

Harold laughed, “Like he hasn’t already told them himself,” he said, shaking his head.

“Yeah right,” Kevin responded, “He knows like, five words.”

“He’s three, Kevin,” Harold informed.

“Well, he still talks like a baby,” Kevin said, feeling overly confident up there out of Harold’s reach.

“He knows more words than you,” Harold said as he too placed a hand on the lowest arm of the tree and hoisted himself up.

“Don’t come up here,” Kevin warned, getting to his feet, “You’ll get stuck.”

Harold halted, squinting at him, “You think I can’t climb a tree?”

“Just saying,” his cousin responded, “I’ve climbed way more trees than you have.”

Harold didn’t listen, instead grabbed the branch above him and setting a foot in one of the holes in the bark where Kevin ad been in the same position not five minutes earlier. Kevin frowned. He knew these woods like the back of his hand, even though he was just seven. He had climbed almost all the climbable trees in the area and here Harold thought he could just do the same. Kevin looked up at the branch above him; he wasn’t in any circumstance allowed to climb any higher than the roof of the house, but Harold was on his way up to catch him.

With renowned confidence, he wrapped an arm around the branch and pulled himself up. He’d never been up this high, and his heart was beating in his throat as he placed his feet on another branch. The branches were getting thinner as he got higher and higher. He finally noticed Harold had stopped climbing and was staring up at his cousin with a hint of fear in his eyes. Kevin smiled down at him, glad he’d won after all.

“Let’s go back to the house,” Harold said, sulking as he slowly and carefully made his way back down.

“Ha, I totally beat you!” Kevin grinned his victory.

“Oh yeah?” Harold said, not looking at him as he placed his feet on the lowest branch again, “You get down then.”

Kevin bit his lip, looking down. The ground was far away and he felt a little bit nauseous. Hugging the tree tightly, he reached down with one foot, searching for a lower branch. The branch creaked dangerously, giving way to his leg and he quickly pulled his foot back up, swallowing nervously. Below him, he saw Harold jumping down, landing in a crouched position and looking up at his cousin in concern.

“You okay, Kev?” he asked.

“I am fine,” Kevin replied stubbornly. This time, he reached out his other foot, and triumphantly found a branch that was strong enough to hold his weight. “Do you know how many of these trees I’ve been in?” He said arrogantly, reaching down again while still holding on to the trunk.

“Yeah sure,” Harold replied with a sigh, “You’re the master tree climber.”

“And you know it.”

“We gotta hurry up and get back before Brian waddles up to Mom and she wonders why I’m not with him.”

Kevin nodded quickly, lowering his foot on a particularly out of reach branch. He saw Harold looking up at him impatiently and hurriedly shifted his weight down. Fires, he heard the branch break, splinters flying around his feet and then he heard Harold yell his name. Then he was weightless for about a second before landing roughly on his back.

All the air was sucked out of his lungs and he gasped like a fish on dry shore. He couldn’t move and stared up at the sky, dazed, before Harold came into his vision. His eyes were as large as saucers and he looked scared beyond belief. “Kev? Are you okay?” he asked.

Kevin nodded, trying to see if he could at least move his head. Relieved, he sat up. “You said I had to come down quickly,” he smiled, but his voice shook.

Harold, pale as a sheet, frowned, “You didn’t have to take it that literally.” He shook his head.

===================

Now

With a weary sigh, Kevin Richardson hoisted his backpack a little higher as he watched the boat approach.  It was hot as hell and the late July sun burned down on his head. He felt the sweat slide down his neck and regretted the fact that he hadn’t tied up his hair for the umpteenth time that morning.

Next to him, Nick rhythmically bounced from one foot to another in a clear display of nervous, yet excited energy. A large portion of the show had been his idea in essence, and for weeks, months, it had been all he could talk about. Kevin watched him and regretted everything. The original idea had been to drop Nick Carter on an island and make him compete with other celebrities in the classic Survivor storyline Kevin was sort of familiar with. But slowly, very slowly –and Kevin was still not sure about the actual method- Nick had been able to warp the premise in such a way that they all got involved.

And Kevin loved the wilderness, so it hadn’t been strange that Nick had presumed that the older man would absolutely love the idea of doing a survival TV program, but Kevin just wasn’t sure if it was a smart move career wise. So he’d opted to at least include some music into the program, and now he was left with the option to maybe have a small part that included music? He didn’t know, he hadn’t heard back from it.

Still, here he was, here they were, without having any idea of what to expect really. The white boat was almost at the pier now, and they’d have to go on, and be taken God knows where. On Kevin’s far right, he could see Howie seemed actually mortified by that idea. If there was one guy that didn’t like the wilderness, it was Howard Dorough, and Kevin couldn’t help but smile a little in his friend’s expense. But, because Howie seemed to always want to do anything to keep Nick happy, he’d gone along with the idea anyway.

Brian, however, had kicked up a storm when it slowly became apparent that this crazy, random idea was becoming a reality and everyone seemed to just be okay with it. Kevin watched his younger cousin’s stoic expression as they waited for the boat to arrive. Brian had once sworn never to participate in any reality program that had the potential to make a fool out of him or out of the fact that they were a boy band. He was too proud for that. But Kevin was also convinced that once Brian would get into the game, he would absolutely love it, because if there was one guy that was competitive to no end, it was Brian Littrell. So he’d just have to give it a chance.

Kevin was a bit more concerned about AJ, who, like Howie, was a total pleaser when it came to Nick, or to anybody for that matter. But AJ was definitely not built for survival in the wild. Especially his knees.

Kevin’s thoughts were wildly interrupted as the white boat pulled up to the pier, leaving a big splash of water right before the Backstreet Boys’ feet. Brian raised his eyebrows in a quiet huff, already totally undignified by the way he seemed to be treated. Kevin ignored him as he watched the young lady climb off of the boat, her short sleeves and glittering sunglasses perfectly appropriate for the beaming sun that was harshly burning onto Kevin’s neck. He knew he shouldn’t have gotten that haircut. But Kristin kept insisting that if he didn’t want his hair to be stuck in all kinds of trees, he better get rid of it.

Nick waited only a second before clumsily reaching forward and helping the woman onto the pier, smiling broadly as he stood next to her. Kevin believed there was a malignant glint in his eyes, as if he knew more than they did. Which, considering, he definitely did. Kevin felt the knot in his stomach tighten when he thought about how little he was actually prepared for this whole thing.

 _Just three weeks,_ he chanted to himself.

“Right,” the young woman said, clutching the clipboard in her hands and quickly looking each of the men up and down. Kevin wondered if she was younger than half his age. “Alright,” she repeated, looking down on her notes nervously, her blond, sleek ponytail dancing whenever she moved her head, “I don’t think we’ve officially met yet. My name’s Sarah Spang, I’ll be the production manager on scene,” she smiled briefly, looking each of them in the eye, “Welcome to one of the biggest adventures of your life!”


End file.
